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Eat cooked foods and use bone broth in the winter. Instead of cold foods and drinks such as salads and ice water, make soup, toast your sandwiches, brew tea and roast your veggies. Your digestive fire won’t have to work so hard to warm up your food and you’ll feel warmer and more energized in the cooler months. For the best health benefits, use bone broth for its easy-to-digest protein and extra calcium.

Consume coconut oil. Besides being great for your skin, its medium-chain fatty acids give you a quick burst of energy without spiking your blood sugar. Buy virgin coconut oil and melt it over a bowl of berries, add it to oatmeal or mix a tablespoon or two into your coffee.

Get more protein at breakfast. Eat eggs, turkey sausage or high protein yogurt (with at least 20 grams protein per serving). You’ll jump-start your metabolism and have more energy all day long.

Add fermented foods or a probiotic. Fermented foods are full of healthy bacteria that are good for your gut and reduce bloating. Go beyond yogurt and try plain kefir, miso soup, kombucha or sauerkraut (the refrigerated kind, not the vinegar-based one in a bag). For the easy route, take a multi-strain probiotic capsule each day instead.

Skip the bread and pasta. If you’re bloated, tired after you eat or have other digestive issues, you may be sensitive to the protein in wheat. Try going gluten-free. Cutting out gluten isn’t as hard as you think — eat rice, sweet potatoes, or oats instead of bread and pasta. Go off wheat for two weeks then eat a lot of it for two days and see how you feel. If your symptoms come back, you’re probably gluten-sensitive.

Nancy Ngo is a Minnesota Native who grew up reading the Pioneer Press, so it’s fitting that she would one day work for them. She is a three time Society of Professional Journalists Page One Award winner. Before covering food and lifestyle, she has previously covered government and public safety. She has served on boards including the Asian American Journalists Association and The University of Minnesota’s The School of Journalism and Mass Communication Alumni Society Board.

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